This statement displays a message dialog on screen. MessageExpression is the text displayed on the dialog. DurationExpression determines the period of time (in seconds) for which the dialog appears.

If DurationExpression is zero or omitted, then the message is displayed indefinitely. A message may be removed by sending a blank message (with MessageExpression set to "") to the screen. If the message is blank then DurationExpression is ignored.

To make a multi-line message, embed the two characters "\n" (without the quotes) wherever you want a new line to start.

You should note that only one message can appear at a time. A new message will replace any other message that is already displayed.

This example displays a message while processing a subtable block. To avoid slowing down the method, the message is only refreshed every five hundred records.

number count

...

Message "processing orders"
count = 0

subtable orders

SetIndex OrderNo
FirstRecord

while not syserror

...
count = count + 1

if count Mod 500 = 0 then

Message "processed " & count & " orders"

end if

NextRecord
end while

end subtable | Orders

Message "", -1